MovieDunk

Friday, March 13, 2015

I've been listening to Cat Stevens today and his music is really connecting to me, particularly Father and Son. It seems to me it's about that point in a parent child relationship where it becomes harder and harder to communicate. The Father is trying to tell the son what he knows of life, and the son is doing what all children must do, be independent. The father tries to speak about putting things in perspective, the son feels everything so keenly and rawly and needs to act, to be.

I'm a father of three, two boys and a girl. People overhear conversations I have with the kids on the phone or hear about what we are doing or see posts on facebook, and they say you are a great Dad. Well I'm not a great Dad. I'm too hard on all of them, I don't know any other way to be. I see them doing things wrong or making bad decisions or taking the easy way out and I try and correct it. I try and point out what they are doing wrong. Why you shouldn't stay up until 3:00 AM texting friends on a school night, why you need to keep track of your things, why you need to put the cap on the toothpaste, why when you spill something you need to clean it up, why you need to hang up your towel, why you need to take an interest in people, why you need to communicate your feelings. I do these things to the degree that even I think I'm a Dick sometimes. But I don't know any other way. When I see my kids hurting I need to say "What's wrong?" When I see my kids being irresponsible I need to say "Hey! come back and do that right".

So All that is what it is, it's not even what I've been thinking about. All I can say about that is I don't know how not to say "Put the lid back on the peanut butter". I don't know how not to ask "What are you doing in your room when you say you are doing hoomework, since you haven't actually done any homework?" I do think, that it's doing things like that though, that keep them from opening up to me about other things. I know that even if that weren't the case there are things that we all want to communicate to our kids but they will never be able to hear. It was like that when we were them. When I was the age of my oldest I was working full time, had a drivers license, a serious (way too) girlfriend, was involved in groups and activities at school. I vaguely remember my Dad saying something along the lines of "Just relax, take it easy.You're still young, that's your fault, There's so much you have to know." I think I heard him say that , but I can't be sure because I couldn't really hear him, I think he might have been too old to be heard.

So what do I want to tell them that they can't hear. I want to tell them and have them understand, really understand, that I love them. That I'm hard on them because I'm afraid, I'm afraid of what happens to them when I'm not there anymore. I want to tell them that they need to take things seriously, they need to do their work, they need to learn how to do the things they don't want to do. I want them to understand that the work you do allows you to do the fun things you want to do. Work is not something you do when you get bored of all the fun stuff. The work is what you do, and then when it's done, you do what gives you joy. I want to tell them that the luckiest people in the world are the ones that love their work, but that to get to that point you have to do work. If you think you would love teaching sign language, then you need to learn sign language. You also have to get a teaching degree so you know how to teach sign language to someone, and someone will pay you to do it. That means taking the time to get decent grades in school and going to college. And that's where doing the things you don't want to do, so that you can then do the things you want to do, comes in. If there is a certain type of life you want to have, then you need to find out what it takes to have that life, and do the work to get there.

I want to tell them that they should try and be one of those lucky people who do what they love. But they have to realize that they need to make a plan for that to happen. If you don't want to spend your life in a cubicle doing something you have little interest in. Then figure out what you want to do and how to do that. It will not happen to you, you have to make it happen. You have to make a plan, you have to execute the plan, you have to invest yourself in the plan. If you do, you can do anything. If you don't, you end up just doing something. You have to do these things now while you are young or you spend the rest of your life playing catchup or trying to get the time or energy to follow through on what you wanted to do. You are only young once, which means you should enjoy it, but it's also the only time you ever get when you don't have to provide for yourself, someone else will, allowing you the time to focus on your future. "For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not".

I want to tell them that even though it seems like I don't get it, I do. I know it's hard to start your homework, I know it's more fun to watch a movie, play a game, talk to a friend then it is to do your assignments. I know Math is stupid and that doing dishes sucks. when you get older, math is still stupid, but you need to be able to balance your checkbook and it comes in handy for that, and doing dishes still sucks, but you need clean dishes to eat off of. There are things you can do to get over the inability to do these things. The hardest but most important is to just condition yourself to do them. When dinner is done get up and do your dishes, that way it's done and you don't let it slip into a insurmountable pile of dirty dishes. When you get home from school do your homework, don't leave it until the end of the night when you are tired and tempted to lie and say it's all done rather than deal with it. When you get up in the morning jump in the shower and brush your teeth, make it a habit, then you are ready for whatever comes. Make rules for yourself and hold yourself too them. I will read at least one book a month to educate myself expand my understanding of my fellow man and for enjoyment. I will brush my teeth every night at bedtime. I will not go to bed with homework that is due the next day undone. all of these things will make your life smoother less stressful and ultimately happier.

Take control of your life, your time, whether it's something you have to do or something you want to do. If you have to do it, just get it done. If you've got free time, do something you want to do, don't waste it being bored or flicking through your iwhatever. you want to play a video game play a video game. you want to watch a TV show, watch the TV show you want to see, don't flip channels, there is always something on but don't just watch something, watch what you WANT to watch. If what you want to watch isn't on, read a book, ride a bike, talk to a friend, do a puzzle, write a play, make a movie. It's as important to use your free time wisely as it is your work time.

So the thing that bothers me is I just clicked on a link on our company homepage that has Yahoo news links, this one was titled Why Stars Work With Woody. It contains this line “The charges of abuse first came to light during divorce hearings between Allen and Mia Farrow in 1992.” Which we know isn’t true as they were never married, but this is in a news story!! Shouldn’t someone writing a news story on this subject know at least as much as I do about it? And use facts?

After reading the attached article yesterday there is no doubt in my mind that we don’t know what really happened. And it certainly reinforced my feeling that there is plenty to question and give you pause about. Unfortunately the “newspapers” just put out headlines and 80% of people believe it, 10% of the others believe where there is smoke there may be fire. After reading the entire article yesterday I think it’s fair to say that there is as good a chance that he did not do this as there is he did. I’d even lean to the side of saying it seems more likely he didn’t, but I’m a fan and can’t imagine him doing that, so I have to take that into account. I've also witnessed people so bitter from divorce that they would have considered making these types of allegations to hurt their ex. Many people will just say they can't imagine Mia Farrow doing that, well I can't imagine Woody doing what he is accused of, but one of them did it. The point is we don't know, and I don't think the headlines that are out there are giving an unbiased view to people. I think most people who read the attached article will come away with a lot of information they didn't know, and it will not seem so black and white to them anymore.

Even the genuinely creepy issue of Soon-Yi seems a little less creepy once you have some of those facts laid out. A lot of assumptions I had were corrected or clarified. Still the age difference whether it’s Woody and Soon-Yi or Mia and Sinatra, is just weird to me, but it does happen a lot. I think what happens to a lot of people is they see that relationship and say well obviously he did this to Dylan. But there really is no correlation between an older man wanting to have a relationship with a 19 year old woman and wanting to have one with a child. Most men will find a 19 year old woman attractive sexually, but find a 7 year old completely unrelated to those thoughts. That line of thinking seems like logic to a lot of people on the surface, but it's the same type of thinking that says a homosexual is probably also a pedophile. there is zero correlation.I don't think I can really add anything to the excellent essay linked above, like that author I don't know what really happened. the point is no one outside Woody Allen and Mia Farrow do. I wanted to post this in hopes that more people we see this article and realize there are more than just the mainstream headlines. If Woody did the things he is accused of that's terrible, if he didn't what is being done to him now and has hung over him for the last two decades is terrible. Either way someone has done something Terrible to Dylan.

Friday, April 5, 2013

1942 -2013
The Balcony is closed, but we will feel you with us at the movies

Roger Ebert's death is a loss to me, an incalculable loss. He was one of my heroes, but also, I have now lost another link to my past. I rarely think of Roger without thinking of my Dad. My earliest memories of Roger are of watching Sneak Previews with my Dad in the basement of our house. We loved to watch the show through the years, and while we liked both Siskel and Ebert, we both preferred Ebert. I think we tended to agree with his opinions more, plus, in a way it seemed like if you blurred your eyes he might be my Dad, if Dad shaved off the mustache.

I think the reason we connected with Ebert is that we watched movies in a way similar to the way he did. We watched them first with our hearts and then with our minds. Roger said "Your Intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you." My first response to a film, and the most important, is my emotional response. There are films I love which I know are not great films, but they illicit an emotional response which I cannot deny, they are my favorites. Likewise there are films that I can view and recognize that they are accomplishments but that do not connect on an emotional level. Those may be great movies, but they will never be favorites. Ebert recognized that film was an emotional art form, and viewed films through that lens, as did Dad and I. Anyone who has watched more than four films with me knows that I cry at the movies. Anyone who has watched iCarly with me knows I cry at that too, but that's off topic. Dad was the same, maybe not as acutely affected as I am but it got dusty during plenty of screenings for him as well.

I love film, It is important to me. That love started with my Dad and was enhanced and validated by Roger Ebert. Later in college my love was placed into context and rounded out by Ted Larson, my college Professor, Mentor, Friend, Surrogate father, and the Headmaster of Weld Hall. There are certainly filmmakers that have inspired me with their works, and friends who have shared a love of films, but it has to be said that these three men had the greatest impact on me and my love of cinema. Ted also watched Siskel and Ebert, and while I can't honestly say I remember for sure, I think he was a Rogerite as well. All three of these men were at least for a fair amount of their existence overweight, is that significant? probably not, other than a life in front of the movies is a somewhat sedentary life. But Ebert turned that around in the last decade or so of his life, and that is another way in which he continues to inspire.

Ted died 13 years ago, my father almost Nine years ago, now the last great film lover is gone as well. But I also lost a hero, not just an influence. There are two writer's I admire most, who's advice on writing I cherish and hold up as ideals. Who's strategies and work ethics I try and impart to my son. Roger Ebert and Stephen King. They are both prolific writers, because they are doing what they love. They realized that writers write, they don't sit looking at an empty page they start writing. I think it was Ebert but it could have been King, they are so similar in their advice, who said (I'm paraphrasing) The muse visits during the act of creation, not before. I have always found both of them to be motivational and inspiring as writers. Roger Ebert posted his last blog entry the day before he died. In that entry he pointed out that the last year of his life had been his most prolific as a writer. He didn't retire when he got sick he used his work to find a new lease on life. A way to communicate and stay social after the loss of his voice. A man who took a hit that would knock most people out and found a way to not only stay on his feet but grow taller.

Every time I read one of Roger's reviews, blogs or essays I would think of either Ted or my Dad and wonder what they would make of it. Now I will not have those moments anymore. As I come across fewer and fewer occasions when I read a piece of Eberts', I know that I will think back on these men less and less. It feels as though with the last of them gone, I now must finally mourn, not just these fine fellows, but the passing of the birth of my love for film. That little piece of them that Ebert kept alive has now departed with him, as they all proceed into the Undiscover'd country.

While I have lost that link to my past I am also aware that Roger Ebert's influence on me is also part of my future. For we are all but continuations of our pasts, the sum of our previous experiences. He was with me when I began to love movies and while he is now gone, that passion he inspired and the example he has set will continue and always be a part of me. He is gone, and there will be no new Writings to be read, but what he has left behind will remain as it does with all great writers. I know that I will return often to what he has left behind and continue to find inspiration there. But it is vital that we not see this only as an ending, for what Roger believed in is not gone he has merely passed the job of sharing it onto us. I will try and follow his example and write more. I will try and live a good life full of empathy and understanding. I will share the importance of and my love of movies with my children. Because film is art, and art is important. There is a quote from the film, and I assume the play Shadowlands that says "we Read to know we are not alone." I've always felt this applied to films as well, We watch films to know that we are not alone. Sadly the theatre seems less crowded today.﻿

Friday, October 12, 2012

In honor of Monster Month here is a reccomended viewing schedule for the tqwo weeks leading up to Halloween. It's basically 3 movies anight with four films on saturday's.

I'd love to hear if anyone actually attempts it.

Give yourself a 1 point for every film you watch during the 14 days, Two for each film you watch on the day assigned, three points for each film if you watch the entire nigths schedule on the correct night. And of course 1,258 points if you follow the entire schedule without missing a single day.

Oct. 18th:
City of the Dead
Susperia
The blair witch Project

Oct. 19:
Night of the Living Dead
28 Days Later
28 weeks Later

Oct. 20:
Scream
Scream 2
Scream 3
Scream 4

Oct. 21:
Nightmare
Scream of Fear
Psycho

Oct. 22:
Night of the Demon
The Devils Backbone
Let the Right One In

Oct. 23:
The Thing From another world
Invasion of the body Snatchers
Alien

Friday, October 5, 2012

The Last two entries have revolved around the Horror films that I grew up with or read about as a child. The films that laid the groundwork for what I must admit is now something of a love of the genre. This week I’d like to talk about The next area of horror which my increasing appetite led me too. Reading magazine articles and internet searches on horror films led me to the films of Mario Bava, particularly Black Sunday (1960). Black Sunday led me to the Italian Giallo style horror films. These foreign films led me back again to the American slasher films of the late 70’s and 80’s through basically today.

BLACK SUNDAY
Bava’s Black Sunday is a very stylized and visually captivating film. Black Sunday is inundated with shots and sequences that stick with you. It’s a black and white tale of Vampires and witchcraft. The story takes second place to the visual style and atmosphere of the film, much like the Hammer films. I was really surprised when I first saw Black Sunday that there was this Masterwork of Horror visuals which I was completely unaware of. I began to explore Bava’s other works. He has made several very good horror films dealing with supernatural elements such as Black Sabbath and Kill Baby Kill. He is also credited with beginning the Italian style of horror film called Giallo. The Giallo tradition of horror films (background of which I owe my education to various internet searches and Wikipedia) actually began as a tradition of cheap book editions of murder mysteries with yellow covers. In the early 60’s Italian filmmakers began making murder films in a very stylized manner, with masked killers and very extreme and dramatic deaths. There are many components to the Giallo style which I will not go into, I recommend the Wikipedia entry to anyone interested in learning more about the Giallo tradition in depth. Reported to be the first Giallo film is Bava’s The Girl Who Knew Too Much. Bava later established more of the genre’s conventions with Blood and Black Lace (1964). This is the film where the masked killer with a sharp knife and black gloves becomes a staple of the Giallo. This then in turns leads us to The masked Slasher films of the US in the 70’s and 80’s. Halloween being the most iconic and brilliant example.

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE
Here is where I must take a step back and explain how all of these things come together for me personally. I’ve written of my love for the old Universal Monster movies and the progression to Hammer/Poe Pictures. Things might have stopped there but in May of 1998 my son Alex was born, I didn’t know it then, but Monsters would play a huge part in his early years, and resurrect my then dormant love of horror. Alex became fascinated with the Universal Movie Monsters just as I had only at an even earlier age. We had many of the films on laserdisc but his obsession with them led to purchasing as many of the films on DVD as we could find for one of our many long road trips when he was younger. His fascination with the films and toys all lead me to a renewed interest as well. As he got older we started to check out the Hammer films, they had color and blood but it was OK because it was “Hammer blood”. The other thing we had to watch out for those days as we explored horror films was poppy outies! Those are the moments when something pops out and startles you, Alex didn’t like those then, he does now and teases me for screaming when they happen. This grew as he got older into what I think is a love of horror films for him. As he got older we started watching the films that I had always been too afraid to watch, he like me seems to enjoy watching things in order and so we watched the Scream films, and the Nightmare on Elm Street films and the Friday the 13th films, and the mother of all Horror Series for me, The Halloween series.

As I look over the progression it seems to me that Halloween is the evolution of the Italian Giallo films and the Monster series films combined. Let’s take Halloween, We have the masked killer with the knife going around and killing people in very dramatic and theatrical staging. We also have the Series element where from film to film we pick up where the last film left off, like the Old Universal Monster cycle of films. On top of that Michael Myers, is the scariest movie monster of them all. I don’t know why it is , but just thinking about that mask scares the hell out of me. What I like about those films is that he is not supernatural. He has an almost supernatural ability to take a licking and keep on ticking, but technically he’s human, his prey have a chance. This is not the case with the Jason films of the Freddy Krueger films, and thus they get less scary and more ridiculous as they go on. I don’t really care for watching some maniac kill a bunch of teenagers (Friday the 13th Part Whatever), I am interested in good battling evil (Halloween). I’m not interested in seeing more and more blood and cross out special effects (A Nightmare on Elmstreet 3) I am interested in Horror Visuals, that draw upon shadows and darkness frightening imagery and suspense (Halloween). I liked there to be a mystery at the heart of the horror, some motive no matter how far fetched and that is what Halloween also took from the giallo films. That’s also why I enjoy the Scream series so much. There is a real life flesh and blood human being behind it all, the heroes have a chance, we care for the heroes, they survive and continue throughout the series and we are thus invested in them as actual characters not just fodder for the killer. I plan to rewatch the Halloween series with Alex this fall, just thinking about it is scaring me. Michael Myers really is horror personified for me.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

In his book On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King refers to the horror movies he saw in the early 60’s as Poe Pictures. (side note here, if you are an audio book fan, do yourself a favor and listen to Stephen King read this book, this is the best audio book I’ve ever heard , I’ve listened to it 4 or 5 times now) He’s specifically referring to the Roger Corman films, usually starring Vincent Price and Based (at least the titles were) on the stories of Edgar Allen Poe. But more broadly I think he’s referring to this type of film, color horror pictures from the late 1950’s to the early 1970’s. These films whether they are from the British Hammer Studios starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing or the AIP films starring Vincent Price and Boris Karloff, all had one thing in common, they are more about atmosphere than story. These films ushered in a new era of horror films, while tame by today’s standards at the time they raised the stakes, adding color and blood (Hammer blood a term Alex and I came up with to describe the fake reddish orange thick tempera paint they used for blood in these films).
I first read about the Hammer films in the Crestwood House Monster series books. The books would principally be about whatever universal Monster film the title of the book was for. The Dracula book would tell the story of the original Dracula film starring Bela Lugosi. After it completed the story of the movie complete with stills it would then go on to give briefer summaries of the other films in the series from Universal. Then there would be a few pages devoted to film versions of the character that came after the universal Series, always giving a decent couple of pages to the Hammer cycle of films. The books described the Hammer films as much more Graphic and bloody than the Universal films were, which I guess they are, while still being pretty PG by today’s standards. I was not a horror fan as a middle schooler, my friends were into the Friday the 13th movies and their like, but those were too graphic and scary for me, I stuck to my fascination with “the Monsters”, and their heightened world of horrors rather than the modern slasher films and their heightened sense of reality and violence. You see I liked the fantasy element, the heightened sense of visuals and the departure from reality in monster movies, I didn’t want to watch people the age of my older brother’s and sister tortured and killed in what looks like our world , our reality. I still don’t. So the descriptions in the books of the Hammer series being in Color and full of blood, alternately made me anxious to and afraid to see them. Unfortunately the Hammer films were not readily available to me growing up, I would from time to time look for them in the horror section of Blockbuster video, but if I ever saw them there, which I can’t remember ever doing so, I must have chickened out, even as a teenager. I do remember seeing one Hammer film with my Dad when I was younger it was the evil of Frankenstein, and I remember it being very boring. It was college before I ever saw another Hammer Monster film, The Horror of Dracula.

I remember as the lights went down in Weld Auditorium, being excited to finally see Christopher Lee in living color as Dracula. I also remember being slightly worried that it would be too much for me. Of course once again the imagination makes things much more intense than the film could ever have been. In fact while I love the film now and appreciate it’s production design and performances, at the time of the first screening in college my mind overcompensated for the relief that it wasn’t too much for me. I laughed at the film, I joked about it, I thought it was ridiculous, this was the reaction of a mind that was relieved it wasn’t terrified, and then disappointed that it wasn’t. Now that I have seen many more of these films I understand that my kids can watch them there is nothing too terrifying in them. Now I appreciate them from an entirely different point of view. For me these are fantasy film, films to be enjoyed for their atmospheric production designs and over the top performances and story elements. The moments I watch for in the Hammer films are those fleeting moments of actual terror or the shots that translate into stills that promise more than the film could ever deliver. Red Skies, black castles atop ridiculous mountains and gallons, well pints, of Hammer Blood. Of the Hammer series, the Dracula films are my favorite. The Frankenstein series makes the mistake of following Dr. Frankenstein from film to film as opposed to the Monster as the Universal series does. As a result the films focus on the man, always making a new monster, thus less monster more people talking about making one. The Dracula films always bring Dracula back from the dead and give us multiple shots of Christopher Lee looking terrifying as the count, with bloodshot eyes and blood dripping from his fangs.

Also in college I was introduced to my first real Poe picture, The Pit and the Pendulum Starring Vincent Price. This film I got right away and knew immediately that I need to own this film and the others of it’s kind. They share with the Hammer films a focus of design and mood, atmosphere over story, and wildly mannered and thrilling performances. The Poe pictures all seem to be variations on a couple of different themes; premature burial, cursed families, Inherited Insanity. Like many of the Hammer films too, there seem to be great story beats strung together by a lot of water treading. This is why many people don’t like these films today, some of these films run 87 minutes but it seems like 180 minutes. In order to appreciate these films you need to appreciate all the elements that go into the movies aside from story. The best of them have a story that is involving, but even the best of them probably seem slow if you can’t appreciate as well the production designs and performances. If forced to watch these films without either sound or Video, I’d choose losing the sound every time, because it is the visuals that make them special.
This brings us to the through line from the 30’s to today. The Universal films established the Monsters iconic looks and characterizations, it also established the series aspect of bringing the Monsters back to life from wherever the previous film left off. The Hammer films took the characters and refined them adding color and a more gothic visuals and design. The Poe pictures, while not utilizing the Monster characters, continued the established Atmospheric and production design elements that Hammer brought to the forefront. All of this leads us to one man, Tim burton. Burton carries on the traditions set out by Hammer and the Poe pictures of design over story, of that heightened Gothic feel, of stone walls and Hammer blood. Sleepy hollow is probably the clearest example of these traditions on display in a Burton film, to the extent that I shelve Sleepy hollow with my Hammer films on the DVD shelf. Other films whose looks are clearly influenced by the Poe and Hammer pictures are Edward Scissor Hands, Burton’s two Batman films, Sweeny Todd, and his most recent Dark Shadows. If one needed further proof of his love of those films just look at how he has peppered the stars of them throughout his films. He has used Michael Gough, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee all in multiple projects, all are veterans of the Poe and Hammer films.

Here, for your viewing enjoyment is a list of the Hammer films chronology of the Dracula and Frankenstein series:
The Horror of Dracula
The Brides of Dracula
Dracula, Prince of Darkness
Dracula Has Risen From the Grave
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Scars of Dracula
Dracula A.D. 1972
The Satanic Rites of Dracula
The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires
The Curse of Frankenstein
Revenge of Frankenstein
The Evil of Frankenstein
Frankenstein Created Woman
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
The Horror of Frankenstein
Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell
And some of the Poe Pictures:
Pit and the Pendulum
The Haunted Palace
Tales of Terror
Twice told tales
The Tower of London
The Tomb of Ligela
An Evening of Edgar Allen Poe
The Raven

Saturday, September 8, 2012

When The Cos spoke those immortal words he was refering to Ten O'Clock, but to me it means October! Every year at this time I get the urge to revisit All the Monster movies of my youth and more accurately my imagination. When I was young we didn't have 500 channels of Television, DVR's, and Blu-Ray players. We didn't even have DVD or Laserdisc players, in fact until I was about Seven we didn't have a VCR. What I did have though was a Dad and an Imagination, and in a way that was better. I wouldn't want to rely on my imagination now but I don't think I'd be quite the same person I am, if I hadn't had to as a child.
I love Movie Monsters particularly the old Universal Studio Monsters from the 30's and 40's. The weird thing is, I loved them before I'd ever seen one of the movies they appear in. I learned of the Monster's; Dracula, The Wolfman, and Frankenstein's Monster from my Dad and Library books. I can remember car rides with my father at night when I was young, probably five or six. It's dark in the car the only lights coming from the dash and the lit Kent 100 in his mouth. I don't know how the stories would start, either to keep me awake until we got home, or to keep me and my brother and sister quiet and stop the bickering that seemed to constantly go back and forth. It doesn't matter how they started what matters is what the stories told, which was basically the plots of the Universal Monster films. But the key thing is, they were better than the films. Anyone who watches those films now is more likely to get tired than scared. Those films as exciting as their plots are and the posters appear, are a bit on the creaky and slow side, especially in the earliest films, Dracula and Frankenstein both 1931. But as muted as they appear now to modern audiences, I still thrill to them. Out of nostalgia? Sure to some extent, but really it's because the films that played in my imagination while my father told the storie were dynamic and dark, scary and action packed, and they had thrilling musical scores (a little dig at Dracula there)and when I watch these movies again to some extent the films that played in my mind overlay what I'm actually watching.
The films themselves got better, In Fact the second film in the Frankenstien series The Bride of Frankenstein is probably the best of the solo Frankenstein films, maybe of all the Monster films put together. The later films also got more exciting in the retelling, because now rather than the tale of Frankenstein, there were stories of Frankenstein, meeting the Wolfman and Dracula, All the Monsters together, add in a Hunchback and a mad scientist and hell the story tells itself. What was really facsinating about the films, as they were told to me, was that each movie began with an explanation of how the creature had escaped it's almost certain demise in the previous film. They didn't pretend the last film didn't happen they simply came up with a plausible way (at least to a young child's mind) that the monster had survived. This burned into my imagination and made for hours of fun for me as I played with my Monster action figures and playset and created films in my mind that picked up where the stories I'd been told left off. If you've never seen the films do yourself a treat and watch them, here's the order to do so in:
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
Dracula
Dracula's Daughter
Son of Frankenstein
Ghost of Frankenstien
The Wolfman
Frankenstien Meets the Wolfman
Son of Dracula
House of Frankenstein
House of Dracula
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
The greatest toys ever!!

Hours were spent reenacting the tales told by my father, expanding on them raising the stories to levels that the films could never live up too. When you are playing with action figures there is no limit to what you can do and there's really no need at all for boring dialogue or some trumped up love story to throw in the mix. The only thing missing were little Abbott and Costello action figures, because Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was one of the first three Monster films I ever saw. We were able to rent VHS tapes of Dracula and Frankenstein, in around 1980 or 81, that was the first time I saw those two. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was on TV at some point, probably a Sunday afternoon on TBS or WGN. The Wolfman would have been the 4th I'm sure, but that as well seems to me was later. I rememeber a couple of times there being specials on TV that showed clips of the old monster movies, as well as clips from the later Hammer films of the late 50's thru early 70's. Aside from that it was Junior High School before I ever got to see any of the later films, House of Frankenstein or House of Dracula, also around the same time I saw Nosferatu (the silent German film which is the first screen telling of the Dracula story) for the first time. I believe it was channel 29 in Minneapolis that ran a bunch of these films late at night and I was able to record them. Up until that point it was library books that gave me my best visuals of the monsters and filled in the stories for me.

These are the Crestwood Monster series books and I must have spent about 137 hours pouring over each book in the series. It was these books that fanned the flames of my Monster loving brain. It was also here that I first heard of the second cycle of Monster films, the Hammer films, but that is another entry. This is about the characters and the stories that first enlivened my imagination, that created this life long love of "the Monsters". I can also see it as the genesis of several of my personality traits. I cannot watch anything out of order, I can't watch a TV show, drama, sitcom, whatever, if I've missed an episode. What I love about TV series is the contnuity , what you might call the soap opera aspects of a show. I see this as a direct continuation of my obsessions with how each movie linked to the one before in the Universal films. I'm much too forgiving of any film that tries to adapt these characters or uses these characters, because I long so much for them, like old friends that are now gone. Give me Dracula and a creepy castle, Frankenstein's Monster and a mountain laboratory, The Wolfman and a fog drenched forest on a full moon night, and you can pretty much forget about the story or pacing, I'll still buy a ticket and get it on Blu-ray. You see I can't help it, I love them thar Monsters.